题文
阅读理解 Faced with a life-changing tragedy, it would be easy for Martha Clements to focus on the negative.But that's not her way. Five years after losing her vision, Clements is back doing what she loves.
"It is long, Kathy," Clements says, running her hands down the length of her client's hair. Kathy Braga
is letting it grow. It now hangs below her shoulders and down her back, and all she wants is a trim(修剪), so she asks Clements to show her how much an inch would be. Clements pulls a ruler from a drawer and
holds it up to Braga's hair in front near her face. "Right here. An inch will be right here at your chin."
Clements was in this career for about 10 years before losing her vision. Now, when she begins cutting,
it's easy to forget that Clements is completely blind. She carefully compares the length of each strand of
hair. Though confident of her sense of touch, she at times asks her client to be her eyes and check her
work.
After a careful inspection, Braga gives her approval. And after Clements blows her hair dry, she
remarks, "You made me younger. I love it."
Clements had been doing Braga's hair for years before she became blind. Braga is proud to say she
was Clements' first customer after she lost her vision.
"She sat me in the kitchen. It was dark, and she said ,' Are you ready?' I said, 'I'm ready.' And that is
when she took this thing, and she said, ' Look and see if there is hair on the ground,' and I said ,' Yes,
there is .' And she said, 'Okay, I have the right end of the thing."
Clements was 42 years old when she suffered a pulmonary embolism (肺栓塞) that cost her sight.
"I was dead for 20 minutes first and then half an hour, and the lack of oxygen killed my optical(视觉的)
nerve." The last thing Clements remembered that day was the ambulance coming to get her. "I couldn't
breathe. The next thing I remembered was waking up three days later, blind, in the hospital."
Her ribs(肋骨)had been broken, when they treated her. Her shoulder was dislocated. She had to
undergo nine months of physical treatment.
"It was the hardest time in my life," she says. "Everything changed in my life: distance, smell, and
sound. My kids didn't sound the same. My husband didn't sound the same too. I didn't know my home.
It took me three months to find the coffee table."
once a month, a teacher from the Virginia Center for the Blind came to her home in Woodbridge,
about 40 kilometers from Washington. But Clements was eager to learn more. So in 2008, she left her
husband and sons, to go to the Virginia School for the Blind in Richmond for a nine-month program. "My
plan was to be able to do for my family again, to do what I like to do, cook, clean, make phone calls."
She learned basic skills like how to walk with a cane, how to listen and how to eat different foods.
There were classes in Braille, computer skills and using different gadgets designed for the blind.
Graduates of the program are expected to leave with not only life skills, but a marketable skill as well.
"My teacher asked me why I wouldn't do hair. I said, ' Hello. Blind. No, no, no.' I was scared to
think I could even do it."
But gradually, Clements gained confidence and by the time she graduated, had styled 100 heads of
hair at the school. "People from headquarters came, people from the library, students, secretaries,
teachers, and friends came. Everybody came and let me do their hair," Clements says.
Three days a week she leaves home to volunteer at the House of Mercy, a Catholic service
organization that provides clothing, food and other support to the poor.
Kellie Ross, executive director of the House of Mercy, remembered when Clements first showed up
with her friend, Kathy Braga, to offer her help.
At first, she had no idea Clements was blind. "As she started to walk I realized she couldn't see, "
Ross recalls. "She could have taken that tragic experience of losing her sight and gone inward, but
instead she used that experience to help other people who are suffering."
Clements says she feels blessed to day, five years after her brush with death. "I thank the Lord every
day for my blindness, because I'm alive," she says. "I could have been dead. I'm alive. I'm healthy, and
that is what matters."
1. What was Clements before she lost her sight?
A. A teacher.
B. A hairstylist.
C. An engineer.
D. A volunteer.
2. To judge the length of the hair of her clients, Clements mainly depends on _______.
A. some handy tools
B. their detailed descriptions
C. her sense of touch
D. Kathy Braga's guidance
3. What can we learn about Kathy Braga?
A. She used to be a regular client of Clements.
B. She follows Clements to do volunteering work every week.
C. She was the first to encourage Clements to try hairstyling.
D. She always pretends to be satisfied with Clements' skill.
4. When she lost her sight, Clements found that _________.
A. her family became hopeless and discouraged
B. her other senses had also been affected
C. her kids and husband began to treat her differently
D. she lost interest in speaking to her family members
5. What would be the best title of the passage?
A. Brave woman expresses her gratitude for life.
B. After going blind, hairstylist returns to work.
C. Programs for the blind give them new hope for life.
D. Blind hairstylist finds pleasure in volunteering work. 题型：未知难度：其他题型
答案
1-5: BCABB解析
该题暂无解析
考点
据考高分专家说，试题“阅读理解 Faced with.....”主要考查你对 [日常生活类阅读 ]考点的理解。日常生活类阅读
日常生活类阅读的概念：
日常生活这一话题主要涉及人们衣食住行等方面的活动。这一话题的选材主要针对人们日常的工作，生活以及学习情况。做这一类题时，最主要的是要把握好人物的活动内容，时间和地点。
日常生活类阅读题答题技巧：
【题型说明】
该类文章内容涉及到人们的言谈举止、生活习惯、饮食起居、服饰仪表、恋爱婚姻、消遣娱乐、节日起源、家庭生活等。文章篇幅短小，追根溯源，探索各项风俗的历史渊源，内容有趣。命题也以送分题为主，如事实细节题、语义转换题、词义猜测题和简单推理判断题等。虽然这类文章读起来感觉轻松，试题做起来比较顺手，但绝不能掉以轻心。因为稍不留神，就会丢分。
【备考提醒】
为了保证较高准确率，建议同学们做好以下几点：
1、保持正常的考试心态。笔者在教学中发现，越是容易的试题，同学们越是容易失分。为什么呢？因为在这种情况下，同学们极易产生麻痹思想，认为题目好做，就不引起高度重视，于是思维不发散、不周密。而命题人就是利用同学们的这一弱点，设计陷阱题。所以，无论试题难易与否，我们都要保持正常的考试心态。试题容易，不欣喜；试题难，不悲观。
2、根据前面讲到的方法，认认真真、细细心心做好事实细节题。
3、做好语义转换题。这类题是根据英语中一词多义和某些词语在文中能表达一定的修辞意义的原则而设计的。要求同学们解释某生词的含义，确定多义词或短语在文中的意思，确认文中的某个代词所指代的对象，或者对英语中特有的表达、格言、谚语进行解释。这种题要求同学们一定要根据上下文猜测词义或理解句子，切不可望文生义。
4、做好简单推理判断题。简单推理判断题要以表面文字为前提，以具体事实为依据进行推理，做出判断。这种推理方式比较直接，只要弄清事实，即可结合常识推断出合理的结论。
